Ford India has introduced the 2020 Ford EcoSport with updated, Bharat Stage (BS) VI emission norm-compliant petrol and diesel engines at prices starting from `8.04 lakh and `8.54 lakh, respectively. On comparison with the BS IV model, the price hike for the BS VI-complaint model is very nominal.
Price of BS IV-compliant EcoSport starts at Rs 7.91 lakh for the petrol variant and `8.41 lakh for diesel variant.
“Ford is committed to offer products and technologies our customers want and value — including our best-in-class diesel engines — at almost the same price,” said Vinay Raina, executive director (marketing, sales & Service) at Ford India.
“With continuation of its entire range, Ford EcoSport will be the vehicle of choice for all compact SUV customers and meet their diverse needs,” Raina added.The 2020 EcoSport comes with 1.5-litre TDCi diesel engine that delivers 100 PS power and 215 Nm of Torque.
The diesel engine is available with five-speed manual transmission. The line-up also includes Ford’s latest three-cylinder 1.5-litre Ti-VCT petrol engine that delivers 122 PS of power & 149 Nm of torque. The petrol engine will continue to be paired with both five-speed manual transmission and six-speed automatic transmission.
Feature-wise, the top variant of EcoSport gets the SYNC 3 infotainment system with an eight-inch touchscreen, support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
For connectivity, all variants in the range, namely, Ambiente, Trend, Titanium, Titanium+, and S, will receive the FordPass system. In terms of design, the carmaker said it will carry forward its bold, imposing stance with aggressive exterior and interior styling. The compact SUV also offers a sun-roof on half of its variants.
In the safety department, EcoSport gets front dual airbags, ABS with EBD, rear parking sensors, high speed alert system, etc. as standard across the entire range. Variants on the other end of the range also get emergency brake assist, electronic stability control, traction control system, hill launch assist, and more. In the SUV market, EcoSport rivals with the likes of Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, Hyundai Venue and Maruti Suzuki’s Vitara Brezza.
Among others, the country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki is also likely to launch BS VI compliant-Vitara Brezza next month, much ahead of the mandated deadline of April 1, 2020, while Tata is launching the facelift of Nexon on January 22.
Alongside Nexon, Tata is also launching the premium hatchback Altroz, BS VI-compliant Tiago and Tigor. The new models are expected to have more features and will be priced higher than their BS IV counterparts.
Coming back to EcoSport, the 2020 line-up will offer standard three-year or 1 lakh KM factory warranty. “The three-year standard warranty on EcoSport is a testament of our continuous localisation efforts and commitment to deliver even greater value to our customers.
Thanks to these efforts, that not only has Ford been able to absorb a large part of investments on upgrading engines to new emission norms, but also strengthen the compact SUVs compelling proposition with an extended warranty cover,” Raina noted.